The more Reidar leveled up and the less C.L.A.S.P. points he got from lower leveled monsters. It was easy to understand the reason: these things had become too weak for him, and there was no benefit for him to get from them, aside from the survival points.

Regardless, there were still workers around, so, despite having reached level 58 in less than 24 hours, by killing countless level 50 and higher monsters, he still had some room for improvement.

Lena was on Reidar's left side, unable to fight, or to truly concentrate. What Reidar was doing was… simply too much, and she was reaping the benefits while doing almost nothing. For sure nothing directly.

Reidar jumped from level 51 to level 58 in less than a day, and as they kept fighting, those levels kept increasing.

They had entered the cave towards the end of the evening of the previous one and they were now around noon of the following one.

The number of monsters he killed was incredible, and if it wasn't for the mechanic, or whatever it was, that made the amount of C.L.A.S.P. and survival points earned, as the level increased, less, Reidar would have jumped through level 100 already. So much was his power, and it could only increase.

<I need to get my hands on summoning skills or something similarly strong.>

With the amount of survival points she was getting from the ordeal, because of the few summoned creatures she made, it was not going to be hard. However, replicating, at least partially, the effects of Reidar's trait was not going to be easy.

<I will also need to increase my A.C.U.M.E.N. The problem is that using the attribute points for that is not going to be a great idea. I will need to buy Attribute stones.>

Morv'axil had described them to her during a late-night trade: rare consumable crystals, or whatever they were, that fused directly into a survivor's soul.

Tiered from lesser to perfect, each held a total bonus, up to three points for the strongest, split in one to four attributes. It granted permanent gains, and there were no level-ups needed. But the vendor's price was astronomical. It was as high as they were rare.

Then she saw something. "Keep pushing! They're weakening!"

Reidar nodded. He channeled Void Javelin next, and a spear of darkness lanced through three soldiers in a line,.

[Piercing! Your Void Javelin strikes Soldier Vorathid Ant for 420 Void Damage.]

[Soldier Vorathid Ant defeated. You have gained 180 C.L.A.S.P. Points. You have earned 40 Survival Points.]

Workers swarmed gaps in the ranks, sacs rupturing in corrosive bursts that melted Reidar's summons. He activated Chitinous Carapace; his skin hardened alongside some of his creatures', and the acid washed harmlessly over it. Well, it sizzled and consumed the carapace, but Reidar himself and the summoned creatures were fine.

Reidar hurled another Void Javelin into the writhing mass of ants, the spear impaling a soldier mid-charge. The void energy unraveled its insides, dropping it in a twitching heap.

His gaze flicked to the summons. The primal pack gained the chitinous armor rather normally; their hides hardened and turned darkened, with the carapace being able to turn the venom sprays into harmless substances.

The spectral knights got a different visual effect, if one would call it that way. Their bodies shimmered as some kind of spectral plates formed over their armor. They were ghostly, like their bodies were, which meant it wasn't that weird to see.

The bone militia instead puzzled him. There was no flesh covering their bones, no organs contained within them, no skin to envelop everything. Yet black obsidian carapace coated their skeletons, veined with red and brownish tints that made them far harder to be seen even compared to the Vorathid ants.

A skeletal soldier lunged forward, striking with its blade and shattering a worker's leg.

The workers surged again, spraying acid everywhere. Reidar was getting sick of this battle.

He had been going at it for quite some time now, and he needed to rest. The sooner this battle ended, the sooner he could rest and eat something.

So, he prepared to use Elemental Storm. The problem was that it was dangerous. Using skills in this situation wasn't simple already, and using fire was even stupid in a sense, since it would just burn oxygen and make them all suffocating.

Yet, it was also the fastest and safest way to kill the Vorathid Ants. In a sense, it looked like this weakness was weaponized, because if fire was used, whoever entered the nest was bound to die of oxygen deprivation.

<Weird.>

[Your Elemental Storm strikes multiple Worker Vorathid Ants for 1245 mixed elemental damage.]

[Worker Vorathid Ants defeated. You have gained 198 C.L.A.S.P. Points. You have earned 59 Survival Points.]

At some point, the tunnel seemed to widen. Ants piled in frenzy, but his army kept going through the monsters.

[Your Summon Spectral Knights strikes Worker Vorathid Ants for 180 slashing Damage.]

[Worker Vorathid Ants defeated. You have gained 189 C.L.A.S.P. Points. You have earned 45 survival points.]

"Where are we?"

Lena tried to figure it out. Using her trait, though, it didn't take much for her to understand where they were, and who they were going to meet.

"We must be close to the queen's chambers. The ants are in a frenzy!"

Bodies stacked, ichor pooling ankle-deep. Reidar wiped his face. Lena pointed ahead.

"We need to be careful here, Reidar!" Lena shouted over the clicking of chitinous legs and the wet sounds of combat.

"The queen's chamber is just ahead—she'll be massive, armored, and surrounded by her strongest guardians! These worker ants are just the vanguard—they'll throw everything they have at us to protect her!"

He gave a nod while scanning the tunnel walls. "Don't worry about the numbers! I've still got plenty of mana left in the tank, and my summons aren't even breathing hard!"

Most weren't breathing at all. He gestured toward the spectral knights cutting through another wave of ants.

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